Re: Wil I be able to use a Z-Wave controller

["Robert L Bass" <RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The FCC limits the radiated power in this band (908.42MHz) to
> 1mW...

Part 15 - FCC:
Sec. 15.247 Omni-Directional Antennas
(b) The maximum peak output power of the intentional radiator shall
not exceed the following:
(3) For systems using digital modulation in the 902-928 MHz,
2400-2483.5 and 5725-5850 MHz bands: 1 Watt.
[Note: The maximum gain of omni-directional antennas at this 1 Watt,
is inferred to be 6 dBi from the paragraphs below, or 36 dBm maximum.
1 Watt is 30 dBm, plus the 6 dB gain, results in about 4 Watts
Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP)]

Note the part where it says "1 Watt".  That's a tad gereater than
Dave's 1mW.  Perhaps I'm reading the wrong paragrapgh in the FCC
rules.  FCC regs aren't my usual fare.  However, FCC "Type Accepted"
(obsolete) security alarm transmitters operating at ~300 mHz range
have radiated 100mW for years.  I understood that the 100mW setting
was lower than what is allowed to conserve battery power.

> (Europe allows 25mW @ 868.42MHz, Canada tends to follow the FCC).
> What the FCC tries to do is allow increased power at higher
> frequencies (it's much lower at the 310MHz used by X-10) to
> compensate for the fact that higher frequencies don't travel as far
> and thus give approximately equal range across the ~200kHz-1GHz
> Part 15 spectrum. So 20-30' is what you can  reasonably expect from
> any Part 15 transmitter in these frequency bands and anyone who
> claims significantly more is full of it.

I guess the engineers at Intermatic know far less than Dave Houston.
After all, what do they know.  They only design and build this stuff,
whereas Dave... um... well, Dave... uh... talks about it without ever
having seen it.

> For example, Lutron RA says their nodes need to be within 27' of
> each other.

They know the limits of their hardware.  That has no bearing on what
another manufacturer may do.

> I'll stick with my recommended 20-25' for reliability.

That's your story and you're sticking to it?  According to the FAQ on
the ZWaveAlliance website (particpants include most of the
manufacturers developing and marketing Z-Wave products:

Q. What is the range of a Z-Wave device?

A. The range of a Z-Wave signal is strongly influenced by the
environment; for example the number of walls that the signal has to
move through. Typical ranges achieved by Z-Wave customers are 30
meters (90 feet) indoor and over 100 meters (300 feet) outdoors in
the open air.

This gentleman has repeatedly denigrated Z-Wave without benefit of
knowledge or understanding of the products, the technology or the
implementation.  It is unfortunate for the CHA community that he does
this as it misleads and misdirects those who might benefit from an
honest exchange of ideas and information.

I make no effort to hide my bias here.  I'm an online vendor and my
company sells Z-Wave products.  That is not all we sell though.  We
also offer competing technologies and frankly, Z-Wave is a miniscule
portion of our sales.  Mr. Houston tries to market devices which use
another technology.  I don't know how much of his disinformation is
motivated by the desire to sell and how much comes from personal
animus (there's a lengthy history but it's not germain to this
discussion).  What I do know is that the gentleman routinely posts
erroneous and, at times, deliberately misleading statements about
products he doesn't sell.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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